As I explained earlier in the year, I use a weekly/daily planner as well as a notebook to keep track of my life. I came to the end of the notebook I had been using, so it was time to get a new one. My previous one, that I had gotten at Michael’s, was lined and I wanted to get a dotted one this time around. I felt like dotted pages would give me a bit more freedom to doodle and draw.

Explanations of the stickers:

• Do you guys ever think about dying? is a quote from the Barbie movie.
• White cat is from the woman yelling at cat meme—one of my favorites.
• “sorry i was reading” text bubble is something I text Josh an awful lot.
• Cried but did the thing anyway should be my life motto.
• Executive Producer DICK WOLF is for all of my Law & Order and FBI universe watching.
• “Would a coward have this?” and seal is from Arrested Development.
• Corgi with sunglasses is Cheddar from Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
• Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgård Titanic-style is from the “Dancing Queen” scene in Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again.
• Ice cream and popsicles are a reminder of my 11 years as an ice cream scooper.

Additionally, I got new markers! Which I was really excited about. I bought these five packs of five Zebra Midliners from Amazon. One pack of five at Michael’s was $9.99, meanwhile I could get all of the five packs for $24.

I kept most of the spreads the same as the ones from my other notebook: days read, books read, movement list, highlight of the day, monthly spreads, and goals for each week. I did add two new ones: trending for each month as well as a monthly recap.

On the left, I tested out all of the markers. Since the markers don’t have a name on them—like a color name—I found that the barcodes on each one was different, so I labeled them by the last two numbers of the barcode. I didn’t want to start using one and end up grabbing a slightly different blue or something. So far the system has been working. The post-it note is for each month’s color for the Highlight of the Day; I’ll use the same color in the monthly spreads.

I mark of every day that I’ve read, and for the 2023 Books list, I write the number book it is of the year, the name and author, and my star rating in parentheses.

My movement log is for any kind of exercise: running, walking, yoga, bike, etc. I wanted to keep track of my exercise and felt like calling it “movement” put less pressure on myself. The Highlight of the Day is a fun way to keep track of one good thing from each day of the year.

This monthly spread is the same one I’ve used before; it helps me see these things at a glance, especially the running to do list and my upcoming appointments. The trending page is new. I wanted a way to keep track of things that were popular/talked out in the media or in my life. It’ll be interesting to look back at these pages at the end of the year and remember all of the things that happened in 2023.

On the left is a blank set-up for my weekly goals. I still use my weekly/daily planner but I like to have a place to dump all of my tasks for the week and then I can assign them days for completion. The recap page is sort of new; I know I already do monthly recap posts on here but I wanted to have something similar in my notebook. Books Read and Movement will be numbers, and the other four boxes will be lists.

Here’s an example of something I drew for my Maine Recap. I like the ability to draw boxes with the use of the dots, and so far the markers don’t really bleed through the pages, so I’m able to do some fun lettering.

I still sit down on Sundays to work on my goals for the week, filling out my book list, and anything else I missed during the week. I used to bring the old notebook with me to work, but now that I use certain markers/pens for this notebook, it stays at home on my desk. It helps me to visually see things—one way I can unclog my brain—so I like spending time working on my notebook and planner. And as I’ve worked on certain spreads, I’ve found it to be a good distraction. I’ll put on Below Deck Sailing Yacht and get to work.